Two men from Dublin who were caught sending indecent images of children to each other from their mobile phones have been jailed for a total of five years.
Gardaí subsequently raided their homes after one of them sent a picture to somebody else by mistake.
The offence occurred back in March 2011, when Kevin Bowes of Markievicz Avenue, Townsend Street, accidentally sent a picture of a naked 12-year-old girl to his neighbour. It is believed that The 61-year-old then threatened to slit the throat of the young girl if she made a complaint. A short while afterwards, members of the Gardaí seized his phone and this led them to Bessborough Avenue in North Strand where his co-accused Kenneth Powell (aged 47) lived.
Gardai then searched the propertis of both men were they found explicit images of children on both of their phones where most of the children were aged between 10 and 17 but some were under 10. It is also thought that Gardaí also found thousands of obscene texts sent between the two men.
Separately, 47-year-old Powell also admitted to making obscene calls to a volunteer at a children’s charity on Valentine’s Day 2011.
Bowes was sentenced to three years today, while Powell was jailed for two.